More preparation essential for apartment living<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A noted sociologist says the city's plans to
\nmove slum residents to apartment buildings must start with
\nprograms to help the residents make the transition.<\/p>\n
Sardjono Jatiman of the University of Indonesia said that the
\nresidents often are not given enough time to prepare.<\/p>\n
\"Often the time between when the plan is announced and when
\nthe residents are expected to move is less than a year,\" Sardjono
\nsaid yesterday.<\/p>\n
It's as if the officials make the announcements \"only when
\nthey remember,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"People are virtually told to live in apartments without
\ngiving consideration to whether they can manage to maintain their
\nlivings as before,\" he said.<\/p>\n
If the city has plans to move slum residents in a certain area
\ninto low-cost apartments in five years, locals should know of the
\nplans as soon as possible, Sardjono told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Programs to prepare future apartment dwellers could begin with
\na group of people assigned to discuss problems and fears with
\nresidents, he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Yan Mogi, the city branch secretary of the
\nIndonesian Association of Real Estate Developers, said that even
\nthough the government provides special credits to low cost
\nhousing developers, only one company has taken up the offer.<\/p>\n
\"In Jakarta, the offer of Rp 200 million (US$85,579.80) is
\nenough to buy a plot of less than three hectares,\" Yan told the
\nPost.<\/p>\n
He said the government's offer will be one of the subjects
\ndiscussed at a seminar today in Padang, West Sumatra, which is
\nbeing held in conjunction with the association's 24th
\nanniversary.<\/p>\n
Given the soaring prices of land and lack of space, Governor
\nSurjadi Soedirdja has repeatedly said Jakartans must be willing
\nto live in apartments.<\/p>\n
Slum residents are also being told to live in apartments to
\nmeet better health standards.<\/p>\n
However, in several cases, residents have sold their apartment
\nunits, fearing that they would not be able to continue earning
\ntheir livings as before.<\/p>\n
\"It is not fitting to be selling leaves and live high up in
\nthe sky,\" a Pejompongan resident said earlier.<\/p>\n
He said his neighbor, a vegetable vendor, was among the slum
\nresidents whose homes were razed by a fire in the area in 1994.
\nThe vendor and several other victims were told to move into an
\napartment building in the same area, only to sell their
\napartments later, the source said.<\/p>\n
\"A vendor worries that his whole 'network' will be ruined if
\nhe moves into an apartment, isolating him from the daily traffic
\nof people,\" Sardjono said.<\/p>\n
Sardjono agreed with Surjadi that apartments are the only
\nsolution if low-income people still want to live in the city.<\/p>\n
But it cannot be assumed that residents will be able to afford
\nthe government-subsidized installments for the apartment units if
\nthey are not prepared, Sardjono said.<\/p>\n
Sardjono cited a pilot \"community empowerment\" program set up
\nbetween the university and the municipality.<\/p>\n
Professors and students working through the university's
\nsociological research institution called \"Labsosio\" have been
\nworking for three years with residents in five neighborhoods in
\nPalmerah, Central Jakarta, he said.<\/p>\n
The program, he said, is slowly beginning to change people's
\nattitudes, from a feeling of dependency on outsiders to one of
\nmore self-confidence. (anr)<\/p>",
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